Ex-defense intel chief probed over plagiarism in book on China

YOKOHAMA – A professor at the National Defense Academy of Japan is suspected of plagiarizing the works of others in a book he cowrote and published last August and is being investigated by the school, academy officials said Thursday.

Parts of the book written by Fumio Ota, a retired vice admiral from the Maritime Self-Defense Force and former director of the Defense Intelligence Headquarters, appear almost identical to materials presented by others at the Japan Society of Strategic Studies symposium held in April.

The book, on China’s maritime strategy, also includes passages believed to have been copied from the Defense Ministry’s fiscal 2010 white paper and the China Security Report released last year by the National Institute for Defense Studies, without any attributions.

The academy was notified by a third party in November of the suspected plagiarism..

New vice minister tapped

KYODO

Hironori Kanazawa will succeed Kimito Nakae as vice minister of defense, the top position for bureaucrats at the Defense Ministry, on Tuesday, officials said Friday.

Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa reported the personnel reshuffle at Friday’s Cabinet meeting and received the ministers’ endorsement, they said.